Product Review: The Bean Ladies

Hey Everyone!

Today, I am reviewing a FABULOUS Canadian company called The Bean Ladies. It was started by twin sisters Julie and Jamie and they make a ton of different snacks, meals, appetizers and desserts, all with beans!

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I was really impressed with their dedication to using good-quality ingredients. They get all of their beans locally from Western Ontario and only use freshly-picked beans in their products. Most of their products are gluten-free and lactose-free too, so they are good for people with allergies.

I was lucky enough to try a one of their soups, a chili, a dessert and 4 of their roasted soybean snacks (which are SO good!).

They have a huge selection of products that you can check out here.

First up were the Double Chocolate Bean Brownies:

Bean brownies, you say? Yes! These brownies are high protein, high fibre, gluten-free and super yummy!

The bag comes with the right amount of dried beans, cocoa powder, chocolate chips and a recipe. I liked that they were really easy and totally customizable. I didn't really have to think much; I just used what was in the package and added my own wet ingredients. It's nice because you can make substitutions if you need to.

I ended up substituting some egg whites in for the eggs because I needed to use them up, and apple sauce for the oil because all I had was olive oil (which might have tasted odd). You could also veganize it with flax eggs or use a sugar substitute if you're diabetic or trying to cut your sugar intake.

Now for the results...

These were very moist, fudgy, chocolately and quite substantial. The only issue I had was that I wasn't able to get the beans blended smooth enough. This was because: a) I live in a city with very hard water and sometimes people find their dried beans don't get fully hydrated and b) I used a hand blender and obviously didn't do a great job. They were still great, but they did have some bean bits.

However, if you don't have trouble rehydrating dried beans and you have a good food processor, these would be even more amazing. Highly recommended!

Curried Bean and Sweet Potato Soup:

I liked that this recipe was "souper" easy to make (heehee...). After rehydrating the beans, all I had to do was throw them in a pot with some chopped sweet potatoes and onions, the enclosed seasoning packet and a tablespoon of brown sugar. I even pureed it with a hand blender right in the pot and it worked perfectly.

This recipe was also great because it is very flexible. It calls for the addition of some milk at the end to make it creamier and I ended up using plain, unsweetened almond milk and it turned out really well. It was a vegan, gluten-free, hearty and delicious dinner. All of the flavours together were amazing and just look at the colour!

I also threw a little chunk of goat cheese into my bowl that got all melty when they mixed into the soup and it was heaven!

Chuckwagon Chili:

The last recipe I tried was the Chuckwagon Chili, which was definitely my favourite of the 3. Julie also told me that she has won chili cook-offs with this stuff. Let me tell you, it was good. It was one of the best chilis I have had in years and I order chili at restaurant a lot. It had a very robust flavour and a good kick of heat to it (although, since I'm the Spice Queen, I may have added a few dashes of Frank's Red to it, shh...).

It was easy to make too. All I had to do after softening the beans was sauté some ground turkey with peppers and onions and then throw it all into a crock pot with the beans, the enclosed seasoning packet and canned tomatoes.

It was nice to be able to customize it too. The recipe called for ground beef, but I used turkey because I don't eat red meat. You could also use veggie ground round or even crumbled tempeh if you are vegetarian.

Another fun fact is that the ladies won't buy their chili powder off the shelf. They actually get their own chili powder blend ground specially for them to include in their products, so you can't get the same spice combination anywhere else. The package also makes a huge batch, so we have lots of leftovers. Mmm... leftovers...

I would recommend all 3 of these recipes, just make sure you get the beans softened up nicely. I have to say that the chili blows them all out of the water, but I am a bit of a chili fiend, so I might be biased ;)

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The products that made me fall in love with The Bean Ladies are their roasted soybean snacks. They are made from non-GMO soybeans, they are high in protein and fibre and most of them are gluten free. These are such a great on-the-go snack because they are filling and delicious! Like, really delicious.

They have a ton of different flavours, both sweet and savoury, that you can check out here, but I will be reviewing 4 in particular.

Smokey Bacon:

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I can't stand the thought of eating pork, but I love the smell of bacon. Well, I have found the vegetarian bacon-lovers' kryptonite: Smokey Bacon soybeans!! These blew me away. Every time I have been at an event where the Bean Ladis have been showcasing their products, I always shied away from this one because of the "bacon" title, but this time I took the plunge and they are amazing!

They are flavoured with garlic and cayenne, as well as natural smoke flavour and I'm not kidding when I say that they taste little little pieces of crispy bacon; or at least, what I remember crispy bacon tasting like...

Plus, 9 grams of protein and 4 grams of fibre is pretty impressive for a quarter cup, and all of their savoury snacks have similar stats.

Salt N' Malt Vinegar:

This is one of my favourite flavours. I kid you not, they taste exactly like the best salt and vinegar chips you have ever had, except they are full of protein so they are a lot more satisfying. Unfortunately, these ones aren't gluten free because of the malt vinegar, but most of their soybean snacks are, so don't get discouraged if you're celiac.

Vanilla Cappuccino:

These are outrageously good! They totally have that sweet, creamy coffee flavour that you get in a vanilla latte. You get a good kick of coffee, but it is rounded out nicely by the smoothness of the vanilla. I am definitely not a coffee lover and I ADORE these beans, so I think even non-coffee lovers would like them.

The sweet soybeans obviously have more sugar and calories than the savoury ones, but their protein and fibre content is the same so that helps to stabilize your blood sugar.

Apples N' Cinnamon:

These are my mum's absolute favourite and one of mine as well. They are like little nuggets of crunchy apple pie or little crispy cinnamon rolls... I guess it's hard to compare them to something you would have eaten before, but basically they are sweet and crunchy with an awesome cinnamon kick. 

For all of the sweet snacks, you really can't tell you are eating soybeans, they are so decadent-tasting.

If you aren't good with soy, they also have spicy chickpeas (which I love) and wasabi peas.

Hope you liked this review, I know I enjoyed all the reviewing :)

Have you ever tried products by the Bean Ladies?